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It certainly explains what Dunmore has accomplished in the second half of its last two games, Friday's 40-19 Class A semifinal win over Bellwood-Antis, and the Bucks' 34-12 romp past Bristol the week before in the quarterfinals.

Because frankly, both opponents were pretty darned good. Especially the Blue Devils, who earned the respect of Dunmore's players after their hard-fought battle at Central Mountain High School.

"Those guys have nothing to hang their heads about," said Dunmore offensive tackle James McHale, who had key blocks on two of Austin Seamon's second-half TD runs. "They are a great football team and we were lucky to get out of here with a win."

But each of the last two weeks, and probably many more that were less documented, the Bucks have blasted holes in the opponents' defensive schemes.

Against Bellwood-Antis, Dunmore held a second-half rushing yardage advantage of 207-54. Versus Bristol, the offense racked up 245 yards while holding Bristol to 75.

And in neither game did the opponents score a touchdown against the first team. Sure, Bellwood-Antis punched one in against the second defense in the final minute, but Dunmore has thrown the haymakers when it comes to second-half scoring.

The Bucks scored touchdowns on all three possessions Friday and poured four second-half scores on Bristol.

Potent pair

With their performances on Friday, running backs Daiqwon Buckley and Seamon have become the most prolific backfield duo in the Lackawanna Football Conference.

Buckley's 223-yard effort and Seamon's 163 yards pushed the pair to 3,050 yards for the season. Buckley is now at 1,755 yards and Seamon is at 1,295.

That surpasses the numbers racked up by Lakeland's T.J. Turpack (1,777) and Joe Tuzze (1,196) in the 2003 season. Perhaps making the numbers of Buckley and Seamon even more impressive is that both missed significant playing time early this season with lower leg injuries.

Each had four runs of more than 20 yards, Buckley serving notice on his third carry, which he broke for 30 yards. He also had runs of 45 (touchdown), 27 and 28 yards.

Seamon had runs of 20, 23, 24 and 23 yards, but none of those were as impressive as his spinning, lunging 13-yard carry to set up Dunmore to take a 25-13 lead late in the third quarter.

The final five yards, Seamon had his back to the line of scrimmage and kept his feet moving, driving the pile forward to set up his 4-yard TD run two plays later.

"It's usually not my style, but we knew they weren't the greatest tacklers," Seamon said.

Just effective

With Buckley and Seamon either running through or around defenders, the Bucks didn't need to do much else offensively in the rain.

But when the offense needed to make a big play, first-year quarterback Brandon Kujawski and senior receiver John Rinaldi hooked up to make them.

Dunmore was facing third-and-14 from its own 13 when Kujawski fired a strike to Rinaldi, who made a nice grab in front of the Bellwood-Antis bench for 16 yards.

Four plays later, Rinaldi plucked a ball off the turf for a completion when it looked like Blue Devils' defender Casey Gray had the best shot at the ball.

"The cornerback made a great play at it but was just under his fingertips where he couldn't get it and I was able to slide right under," Rinaldi explained.

Those two completions were just enough to make the defense at least consider the pass.

"Teams think we're going to run the ball, and we are," Rinaldi said. "You get a completion or two, it keeps them on their heels. They weren't sure for the rest of that drive and the next drive if it was pass or run. And then we were just able to wear them down with our big linemen."

Defense steps up

Sal Marchese's strip and Josh Sawka's fumble recovery inside the Dunmore 30 may have been the most notable defensive play of the semifinal win, but another came shortly after Bellwood-Antis fell behind, 25-13.

Faced with a fourth-and-1 at their own 42, Gray ran a stretch play to his left, but he was stuffed for no gain as Sawka, Marchese, Seamon and Cory Jones swarmed to the ball.

Four plays later, Seamon scooted 24 yards for what was essentially a backbreaking touchdown.

"The first half we had too many penalties and we made some mistakes that were hurting us," Dunmore coach Jack Henzes said. "We stepped up our defense.

"We told them we had to get to the football and we had to be more physical. And I think we wore them down the second half. My kids have really played hard for us all year and we are very fortunate."

Friday's state title game against Clairton will be the third appearance in the championship for the Bucks (1989, 2007), most among LFC teams, and the fourth for a Class A school (Riverside 1997, 2010) and Dunmore ('89).

Contact the writer: mmyers@timesshamrock.com On Twitter @mmtimes

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